My tank is crashing
- Thread starter dascharisma
- Start date
dascharisma
New member
As JJ mentioned, only the sps seem troubled. There are two echinos, two types of zoanthid, two different candy canes and the clam that have all been seemingly unaffected. Beyond being non-sps these corals share the comanality of being lower in the tank. The most interesting coral is the green hydnophora. It reacted exactly like the sps at first, but it began to make a come back in the last day or two. It is funny since there is some debate as to whether the hydno is really an sps or not.
That being said, I am still clueless as to the cause of all of this. I can tell you that I will be starting a new tank and will replace all of my bulbs and carefully inspect all equipment before reassembling everything. At this point I am only uncertain as to whether or not I should drain all the water and use new rocks. My plan is to put some test sps in the basement frag tank. If they live then I can assume the problem is gone. If they don't I will replace all the rock and water.
If anyone comes up with any new theories I would be glad to hear them. In the future, I would like to avoid whatever mistakes I made this go around. New bulbs, a grounding probe, more carefull monitoring of nitrate, better cleaning of any new equipment, and more luck are the lessons I am taking from this.
See you in my new tank thread.
Brad
Just a few of my random thoughts...
One, with all of the concern around UV and the MH's why not just shut them down for a few days and see what happens?
Second, and more importantly, this really sounds like something made its way into your water.
I realize that it's a tough question to ask, especially of your parents, but I would need to know...
Did anything accidentally get dropped into the tank? Use the wrong container? Was there any reason that either one of them needed to put their hands in the tank? Just for an instance? Residual soap, chemicals, lotions, etc. could certainly cause this type of problem!
I hope that you get to the bottom of it!
One, with all of the concern around UV and the MH's why not just shut them down for a few days and see what happens?
Second, and more importantly, this really sounds like something made its way into your water.
I realize that it's a tough question to ask, especially of your parents, but I would need to know...
Did anything accidentally get dropped into the tank? Use the wrong container? Was there any reason that either one of them needed to put their hands in the tank? Just for an instance? Residual soap, chemicals, lotions, etc. could certainly cause this type of problem!
I hope that you get to the bottom of it!
dascharisma
New member
Good call on the bulbs. Ever since the corals initially retracted and began to bleach I have had the halides off, both to protect them from further bleaching and from any uv being let off by the bulbs.
I agree that there is something in the water. Now that all my sps are either dead or out of the tank what I really want to know is if the water will ever be safe to use again.
I have talked with my parents and am very confident that they made no mistakes. Their only duties while I was gone were to flip a valve to fill my kalk topoff bucket, put three scoops of kalk into the bucket, and drop in two cubes of food morning and night. I made it clear to avoid contact with the water. I explained what could happen if a splash were to touch the bulbs. I even went so far as to tell them not to clean the glass for fear of the magnet being seperated and knocking into something.
Brad
KnoxvilleIa
New member
Question
Question
I’m asking this question since I’m new to all of this and want to learn all I can.
I lost a fish well 3 early on was gone and had a Amonia spike.
By the time I got back all that was left was high nitrates.
I was gone thru the ANN cycle and missed the ammonia spike, the nitrite spike.
Could it be some thing died and fueled the ANN cycle??
Question
I’m asking this question since I’m new to all of this and want to learn all I can.
I lost a fish well 3 early on was gone and had a Amonia spike.
By the time I got back all that was left was high nitrates.
I was gone thru the ANN cycle and missed the ammonia spike, the nitrite spike.
Could it be some thing died and fueled the ANN cycle??
sgarrett1108
New member
In a well established tank something dying wouldn't affect it that much. It would have to be something really big. Plus his water volume is large enough that if something did it would dilute it out
dascharisma
New member
Well, I honestly have no clue. I guess I should probably toss the food just like I am tossing the bulbs to be safe.
Brad
kynan
Member
I stumbled on this thread. Recent crashes I have heard about have included heaters leaching toxins into the water, a bad heater controller and an unnoticed temp spike or drop.
I am sorry to hear about your troubles. More often than not the root cause is the most obvious. I think you may make yourself nuts chasing down poor percentage scenarios.
I am sorry to hear about your troubles. More often than not the root cause is the most obvious. I think you may make yourself nuts chasing down poor percentage scenarios.
dascharisma
New member
Yep. The first thing I do if things look strange is to check the data log on my aquacontroller. Everything was perfect.
Brad
Double-J
Premium Member
Well... 4 corals are completely gone (sorry brad) about 10 others show signs of tissue death but have polyps out on them. and about 10 others mostly the milli's look fine with decent polyp extension. I think my guess of 50%making it is about right. Which is still better than 100% dead. I've been looking at night with a flashlight for red bugs or flatworms but no signs at all of any of them, my guess is they are still very stressed out and still getting use to the water params and T-5 lighting. I'll keep you guys posted
Marcus we did test for copper and it was 0 The phosphates were a little high at .09 and of course the nitrates at about 25.
Marcus we did test for copper and it was 0 The phosphates were a little high at .09 and of course the nitrates at about 25.
dascharisma
New member
The bulbs are 6 months old, and were going to be replaced in January. I ran my last set for 6 or 7 months and never saw any issues, not to say that the current bulbs weren't the cause. Is there any theoretical reason for RTN being related to older radiums or is there just anecdotal evidence?
Brad
Brad
This is why I threw in the towel with most sps's except for a few Monti's. Sps's especially acro's will die off without any apparent reason leaving you to start all over again. I don't believe there are any real valid answers the these problems with sps. I currently keep a mix garden style tank much happier.
